Since 1979 he has referred to himself as "HRH Prince Michael James Alexander Stewart, 7th Count of Albany", stating that an ancestor used the title "Count of Albany". Lafosse also says he has the right to other noble titles including Comte de Blois, Duc d'Aquitaine and Baron Lafosse de Chatry.[2]
Lafosse claims that this history is inaccurate and that the Stuart line did not end with the death of Henry Benedict Stuart. Instead, Lafosse says that Charles Edward Stuart secretly obtained a papal annulment of his marriage to Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern and, subsequently, in a secret ceremony, married a woman called Marguerite O'Dea d'Audibert de Lussan, Comtesse de Massillan.[3] He says this union produced an heir in 1786, a son, Edward James Stuart, Count Stuarton, Count of Albany, from whom he says he is descended.
Lafosse says he is the son of "HRH Princess Renee Stewart, Lady Derneley" (according to Lafosse, the senior descendant in the female line of Edward James Stuart), and "Gustave Lafosse de Chatry, 5th Baron de Chatry". These individuals, as well as others, are listed in an extensive genealogy presented by Lafosse as evidence that he is descended from the last Stuart King of Scotland.
There is some disagreement over who Lafosse's parents and ancestors were. Lafosse says he was born on 21 April 1958 in the Ville de Bruxelles district, and that his parents were Baron Gustave Joseph Fernand Clément Lafosse and Princess Renée Julienne Stewart.[4] In 2002, Brussels authorities stated that this certificate is a forgery, and that they have a birth certificate showing that Lafosse was born in Brussels on 21 April 1958, in the Watermael-Boitsfort district to Gustave Joseph Clément Fernand Lafosse, a shopkeeper, and Renée Julienne Dée, a business employee.[5]
Peter Piniski, in The Stuarts' Last Secret, says of Lafosse's assertion:
One recent, heroically unsubstantiated claim is that Prince Charles married in 1785 and fathered a legitimate child. This 'fact' (which has escaped the notice of every historian for over two hundred years!), is particularly imaginative considering the prince was married at the time, being only separated from Louise von Stolberg-Gedern, after April 3rd 1784, who remained under the protection of the Pope. Nor was eighteenth century Rome the best of cities for an internationally known Roman Catholic prince to commit bigamy. It also ignores Charles' wretchedly infirm condition from before that date until his death three years later. Likewise does it ignore the presence (and insult the memory) of Charles' daughter and sole heir, Charlotte, who was daily at her father's side, nursing him right up to the moment of his death despite her own cancer. Professing direct descent on the female line from this 'marriage' the same claimant equally fails to provide any evidence, proper references or verifiable source documents for his additional assertion of descent on the male line from not one, but both daughters of Charlotte Stuart. Professor Lenman describes all of this as: 'The industry of Stuart charlatanism'.[6]
Lafosse has also stated that he was "President of the European Council of Princes", following Archduke Otto of Austria's tenure in that position. Archduke Otto later said that he had never been president of any such body, or a member of any such body, and that, in fact, he had never heard of it.[4]
The Forgotten Monarchy of Scotland
Written by Lafosse, The Forgotten Monarchy of Scotland: The True Story of the Royal House of Stewart and the Hidden Lineage of the Kings and Queens of Scots[7] is a book published in Shaftesbury, England, in 1998. The book claims to provide previously unknown accounts of the life of Charles Edward Stuart, the last head of the Royal House of Stuart, during his exile from Britain.
Lafosse, who claims descent from Charles, includes within the book various accounts of previously unknown marriages and births within the Royal House of Stuart, beginning with the secret annulment of the marriage of Charles Edward Stuart and Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern, and his subsequent remarriage to Marguerite O'Dea d'Audibert de Lussan, Comtesse de Massillan.[4]
Present activities
Although born in Belgium as Michel Roger Lafosse, he became a naturalized British citizen in the 1990s and has since used the name Michael James Alexander Stewart of Albany. His website stated that he was a diplomat of the self-styled[8]Federation of Autonomous Priories of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Knights of Malta (not the Sovereign Military Order of Malta or one of the Protestant Alliance Orders),[9] and a cultural attaché at the Knights of Malta's embassy in the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe in West Africa; and that he has been awarded the United Nations 2001 "Volunteer Service Medal" under the name "Albany".[citation needed]
Lafosse claimed to be the Fons Honorum and Grand Protector of The Imperial and Royal Dragon Court and Order in Britain and the English-speaking world.[10]
On 18 June 2006 the Sunday Mail reported that Lafosse was to be deported after having lost British citizenship because, it is alleged, he submitted a forged birth certificate.[11] Later, on 23 July 2006, the Sunday Mail reported that, in the wake of the publicity surrounding his claims and his loss of British citizenship, Lafosse had sold up his house in Edinburgh and returned to Belgium to live with his mother.[12]
His latest book, co-authored with Walid Amine Salhab, is The Knights Templar of the Middle East: The Hidden History of the Islamic Origins of Freemasonry (2006).[13]
↑ "Are You the King of Scotland?". BBC. 1 November 2004. Retrieved 11 December 2012. Who is Michael Stewart? He was born in Belgium on April 21, 1958 and was raised at the Château du Moulin in the Ardennes
↑ Thomson, Oliver (2009). The rises & falls of the Royal Stewarts. Stroud: History. p.206. ISBN978-0750949644.
1 2 3 Picknett, Lynn; Prince, Clive (2006). The Sion Revelation: The Truth about the Guardians of Christ's Sacred Bloodline. New York, N.Y.: Touchstone books. pp.281–84. ISBN9780743263030.
↑ Piniski, Peter (2002). The Stuarts' last secret: the missing heirs of Bonnie Prince Charlie. East Linton: Tuckwell Press. p.263. ISBN978-1-86232-199-1.
↑ Stewart, Michael James Alexander (2 August 1998). The Forgotten Monarchy of Scotland: The True Story of the Royal House of Stewart and the Hidden Lineage of the Kings and Queens of Scots. Element. ISBN1-86204-234-9.
Charles Edward Louis John Sylvester Maria Casimir Stuart was the elder son of James Francis Edward Stuart, grandson of James II and VII, and the Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1766 as Charles III. During his lifetime, he was also known as "the Young Pretender" and "the Young Chevalier"; in popular memory, he is known as Bonnie Prince Charlie.
James Francis Edward Stuart, nicknamed the Old Pretender by Whigs, was the son of King James II and VII of England, Scotland and Ireland, and his second wife, Mary of Modena. He was Prince of Wales from July 1688 until, just months after his birth, his Catholic father was deposed and exiled in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. James II's Protestant elder daughter Mary II and her husband William III became co-monarchs. The Bill of Rights 1689 and Act of Settlement 1701 excluded Catholics such as James from the English and British thrones.
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The House of Stuart, originally spelled Stewart, was a royal house of Scotland, England, Ireland and later Great Britain. The family name comes from the office of High Steward of Scotland, which had been held by the family progenitor Walter fitz Alan. The name Stewart and variations had become established as a family name by the time of his grandson Walter Stewart. The first monarch of the Stewart line was Robert II, whose male-line descendants were kings and queens in Scotland from 1371, and of England, Ireland and Great Britain from 1603, until 1714. Mary, Queen of Scots, was brought up in France where she adopted the French spelling of the name Stuart.
Duke of Albany is a peerage title that has occasionally been bestowed on younger sons in the Scottish and later the British royal family, particularly in the Houses of Stuart and Hanover.
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Charlotte Stuart, styled Duchess of Albany was the illegitimate daughter of the Jacobite pretender Prince Charles Edward Stuart and his only child to survive infancy.
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The House of Hornes was an old and important European noble family, which became extinct in the male line in 1826. The name refers to Horn, a small village in Limburg, located in the Netherlands.
Clan Stewart (Gaelic: Stiùbhart) is a Scottish Highland and Lowland clan. The clan is recognised by Court of the Lord Lyon; however, it does not have a Clan Chief recognised by the Lord Lyon King of Arms. Because the clan has no chief it can be considered an armigerous clan; however, the Earls of Galloway are now considered to be the principal branch of this clan, and the crest and motto of The Earls of Galloway's arms are used in the Clan Stewart crest badge. The Court of the Lord Lyon recognises two other Stewart/Stuart clans, Clan Stuart of Bute and Clan Stewart of Appin. Clan Stuart of Bute is the only one of the three clans at present which has a recognised chief.
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Louisa Maria Teresa Stuart, known to Jacobites as The Princess Royal, was the last child of James II and VII, the deposed king of England, Scotland and Ireland, by his second wife Mary of Modena. Like her brother James Francis Edward Stuart, Louisa Maria was a Roman Catholic, which, under the Act of Settlement 1701, debarred them both from succession to the British throne after the death of their Protestant half-sister Anne, Queen of Great Britain.
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